Foundation: A History of England Volume I (History of England Vol 1) - Hardcover

Peter Ackroyd

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0230706398 ISBN 13: 9780230706392

Publisher: Macmillan, 2011

Synopsis

Having written enthralling biographies of London and of its great river, the Thames, Peter Ackroyd now turns to England itself. This first volume of six takes us from the time that England was first settled, more than 15,000 years ago, to the death in 1509 of the first Tudor monarch, Henry VII.

In it, Ackroyd takes us from Neolithic England, which we can only see in the most tantalising glimpses – a stirrup found in a grave, some seeds at the bottom of a bowl – to the long period of Roman rule; from the Dark Ages when England was invaded by a ceaseless tide of Angles, Saxons and Jutes, to the twin glories of medieval England – its great churches and monasteries and its common law. With his extraordinary skill for evoking time and place, he tells the familiar story of king succeeding king in rich prose, with profound insight and some surprising details. The food we ate, the clothes we wore, the punishments we endured, even the jokes we told are all found here, too.

About this title

Review:

'In a handsome, book-lined room overlooking a quiet London square Peter Ackroyd is hard at work on what is probably the biggest non-fiction project of our times... In its scale, Ackroyd's project echoes the monumental histories of Churchill, Trevelya and Macaulay, but perhaps the closest parallel is Edward Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire... He makes bold, flowing statements and conclusions that make the familiar, national story fresh again.' --The Bookseller

`Peerless prose and entertaining anecdotes'
--Tatler

`Foundation, which takes us from the court - and their bloody, dynastic game that played out over several centuries - to the land, its peoples and the formation of a national psyche over a millennium of relentless immigration combined with a steadfast attachment to custom. Continuity is one of Ackroyd's themes, in keeping with a writer always attuned to the footprint of a past that can't quite be seen. Foundation excels at a sort of historical patterning, as Ackroyd maps out the use of landscape, domestic lives and hard-wired English reflex for both violent revolt and bureaucratic administration.' --Metro

'The title choice of article - `The History', not `A History' - is telling. With `Foundation', Ackroyd makes a compelling case to be the country's next great chronicler..... As he moves from the Neolithic age to the death of Henry V11 in 1509, he creates such colourful images of hunters, gatherers, kings, knights, peasants and ploughman that we can imagine he lived through every century himself... Five volumes more of this? I can't wait.' Book of the Week, 4* --Time Out

'Ackroyd's trademark insight and wit, and the glorious interconnectedness of all things, permeate each page.' --Observer

'Every page throngs with chewy quotations, unexpected facts and conjectures, granular detail. His richly coloured prose - he has a showman's forgivable weakness for the superlative - wraps it all up compellingly...' --Spectator

'In a few lines he can capture the colour and flavour of medieval life. In the tenth century, he tells us, men wore their hair long; to cut someone's hair was "as criminal as cutting off a nose or ear". --Prospect

'It prises your eyes open to the past... but it has the urgency and colour of a novel. It even has cliffhangers... One notable thing about Foundation is that it doesn't only feature priests, noble folk and queens, but farmers, iron-mongers and revolting peasants demanding, via pitch folk, a better deal in life.' --The Big Issue

'This is an extraordinary book... On this journey Ackroyd opens our eyes to the history that has always been around us, from tribal groupings and regional differences to the long-term effects of Roman rule and the impact of the saxon invasions. The churches in country towns, monastic buildings and our common law all bear witness to our colourful past... Ackroyd's brilliance is to bring all this alive in effortless prose. In this volume we learn of influential personalities and the shape and size of the land they inhabit... Ackroyd brings delightful but revealing details of the lives of the people from the past into the present. He reminds us that history is not simply an account of the lives of the kings and queens of England but a story of the wars, customs, homes, clothes and heritage that we all share...History, Ackroyd argues, is a tapestry and, on the evidence of this book, it's impossible to deny him. Even if you think you know a lot about English history, you will learn a great deal from Foundation.' Five Stars --Sunday Express

'Ackroyd is particularly intriguing on language, writing that the Germanic word walh (Celtic Speaker) continues to reverberate in the words Wales and Cornwall, and that the town of Hastings might take its name from the "followers of Haesta" who settled there in the 5th century.' --Sunday Times

Book Description:

The first volume in a new six-part history of England from acclaimed author Peter Ackroyd

About this edition

• Publisher: Macmillan
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0230706398
• ISBN 13: 9780230706392
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 496